High School Fleet Movie

[Jamibu]

Haifuri Movie showing this Saturday in Japan. Though there's some concerns that the movie is still unfinished according to the ones who watched the pre-screenings.

[Infinite Zenith]

Originally Posted by Jamibu

Haifuri Movie showing this Saturday in Japan. Though there's some concerns that the movie is still unfinished according to the ones who watched the pre-screenings.

While probably not a good thing for the movie-goers who will see it in theatres, at the expense of sounding like a wet blanket, this could arguably be a good thing for overseas fans: a movie whose production values were compromised could mean that the theatrical run would be shorter, and that more effort might be shifted towards selling BDs, which would have the improved footage. This is, of course, a very naive view of things, and I'm not optimistic that an unfinished movie would mean an earlier home release.

[Marina2]

Did they release any PV yet?

[Infinite Zenith]

BD release is October 28, 2020 according to the Hai-Furi official Twitter. While it's nice to know, this is absolutely insane: is nine to ten months the new norm now for anime movies?

[Nachtwandler]

Originally Posted by Infinite Zenith

BD release is October 28, 2020 according to the Hai-Furi official Twitter. While it's nice to know, this is absolutely insane: is nine to ten months the new norm now for anime movies?

Nah, its prtetty standard. I still remember almost a year wait for Nanoha movies BD release.

[Jamibu]

We could also factor in the current health crisis as a reason for the release date. Also, the movie had a theatrical re-release last March(with the completed content added in it) before the pandemic happened. I’m now certain that the Shirobako movie will end up like Haifuri.

[Infinite Zenith]

That is understandable. Hopefully, this movie will be worth the wait, then.

[Infinite Zenith]

I finally had a chance to watch High School Fleet: The Movie, and it turns out the movie was well worth the wait. I definitely had fun with this movie (my full thoughts are in a much longer review/reflections piece that won't fit in a forum post), which basically does everything the TV series did well, better.

Without spoiling anything, this movie acts as a proper continuation of High School Fleet, benefitting greatly from a more plausible story that gave a chance for the different characters to shine.

Overall, it was a superb experience that suggests that High School Fleet could indeed work as a concept: the world-building is all there, and the characters are people we can root for, so all they'd need for a continuation is adventures such as what we'd seen in the movie.

[arkhangelsk]

Oh, so I was on the wrong thread after all - and I was wondering why no one ... wait, there really isn't anyone, is there? Why?

Excellent review, but I'll comment a little bit on the parts that referenced me:

Spoiler for The Hiei Promotion:

Because Hai-Furi: The Movie is set in a school setting, the choice to recruit Mashiro for the post makes sense...

I was actually praising the Movie rather than criticizing here. Narrative-need aside, far from not doing things that a navy would, it is actually being a good parody of the Imperial Japanese Navy in its emphasis on grades. I suspect many Japanese viewers in the know had a smile when they saw that too. It's one of the things meant to please the Japanese miltaku viewer, and it works.

Spoiler for Obstacle Course:

... I enter trusting that characters are competent enough to know the difference between the two and therefore, will not develop any bad habits as a result of how competitions are structured.

First, I'm not sure that's a valid response. If I say it is a bad influence, and the best defense is that people can "filter it out", isn't that agreeing it's at least a mildly bad influence? As an educational institution, why not promote a game that's a good influence, so that people don't have to "filter" anything out?

Believe me, I was not deliberately holding the Movie up to standards - the post the review references are literal First Reactions that I was punching out while watching the show the first time, and submitted almost as soon as I finished. It's also on the nether regions of midnight when I watched and typed, so my brain wasn't moving particularly fast.

Without commenting on the merits of deliberate Fault-finding by viewers, all viewerbases have a "Default Sensitivity" where some absurdities just are "too much" for them even if they "Turn Their Brains Off" and don't dwell on the scenes.

The maker of a commercial product tries to estimate where that is, and here the presentation makes it clear that the makers predicted this part will be controversial.

In deciding how to deal with it, there are 3 choices: Adjust the Narrative, Try to Explain it Away, or Blow Past with High Tempo and Flashiness. The minimal goal is to at least make it to the end of the vignette before their viewer "notices something". If they make it at least that far, even if they notice it later any harm to enjoyment is minimized (of course, the more time bought before the viewer notices it, the better).

They bet on the 2nd option, and not with a one-liner, but a discussion. This often backfires because:

1. It extends the time of the vignette in a very non-flashy way, giving more time for the audience to notice the faults.
2. It draws attention to the controversy - it might have blown past un-noticed if the "author" hadn't tried to explain it.
3. It eliminates the possibility of "Auto-Repair" by the viewerbase. Unexplained questionable parts are rationalized with the best self-generated explanations by the viewer and viewerbase. An explanation limits the viewerbase to working with it. How confident should an author be that his explanation will be better than the best his viewerbase can provide?

I'm not sure whether the non-game ending torpedoes were a good choice even from a Narrative perspective anyway. The main literary intent of that vignette is to show how distressed and distracted Mashiro is, and then give her a hammerblow from her distraction costing the team.

One would think it'll be a harder hammerblow if Harekaze's boat was doing very well, dodging all the torps even as other boats are getting disqualified for failing to dodge torps, and then thanks to Mashiro a torp clips the boat and ends the game for Harekaze's crew.

[Nachtwandler]

Damn. Still no subs for the movie. I'm waiting for them.

[Infinite Zenith]

Originally Posted by arkhangelsk

Oh, so I was on the wrong thread after all - and I was wondering why no one ... wait, there really isn't anyone, is there? Why?

Excellent review, but I'll comment a little bit on the parts that referenced me:

Spoiler for The Hiei Promotion:

I was actually praising the Movie rather than criticizing here. Narrative-need aside, far from not doing things that a navy would, it is actually being a good parody of the Imperial Japanese Navy in its emphasis on grades. I suspect many Japanese viewers in the know had a smile when they saw that too. It's one of the things meant to please the Japanese miltaku viewer, and it works.

Spoiler for Obstacle Course:

First, I'm not sure that's a valid response. If I say it is a bad influence, and the best defense is that people can "filter it out", isn't that agreeing it's at least a mildly bad influence? As an educational institution, why not promote a game that's a good influence, so that people don't have to "filter" anything out?

Believe me, I was not deliberately holding the Movie up to standards - the post the review references are literal First Reactions that I was punching out while watching the show the first time, and submitted almost as soon as I finished. It's also on the nether regions of midnight when I watched and typed, so my brain wasn't moving particularly fast.

Without commenting on the merits of deliberate Fault-finding by viewers, all viewerbases have a "Default Sensitivity" where some absurdities just are "too much" for them even if they "Turn Their Brains Off" and don't dwell on the scenes.

The maker of a commercial product tries to estimate where that is, and here the presentation makes it clear that the makers predicted this part will be controversial.

In deciding how to deal with it, there are 3 choices: Adjust the Narrative, Try to Explain it Away, or Blow Past with High Tempo and Flashiness. The minimal goal is to at least make it to the end of the vignette before their viewer "notices something". If they make it at least that far, even if they notice it later any harm to enjoyment is minimized (of course, the more time bought before the viewer notices it, the better).

They bet on the 2nd option, and not with a one-liner, but a discussion. This often backfires because:

1. It extends the time of the vignette in a very non-flashy way, giving more time for the audience to notice the faults.
2. It draws attention to the controversy - it might have blown past un-noticed if the "author" hadn't tried to explain it.
3. It eliminates the possibility of "Auto-Repair" by the viewerbase. Unexplained questionable parts are rationalized with the best self-generated explanations by the viewer and viewerbase. An explanation limits the viewerbase to working with it. How confident should an author be that his explanation will be better than the best his viewerbase can provide?

I'm not sure whether the non-game ending torpedoes were a good choice even from a Narrative perspective anyway. The main literary intent of that vignette is to show how distressed and distracted Mashiro is, and then give her a hammerblow from her distraction costing the team.

One would think it'll be a harder hammerblow if Harekaze's boat was doing very well, dodging all the torps even as other boats are getting disqualified for failing to dodge torps, and then thanks to Mashiro a torp clips the boat and ends the game for Harekaze's crew.

The gap between our interpretations of the obstacle course is probably from a completely different approach that we have towards military-moé. I personally see such anime as "high school girls doing military things", rather than "military that happens to have high school girls in it" – it's simply a matter of different expectations, and that's completely fine.

At any rate, this scene was really about Mashiro being unfocused, and also suggests that the Harekaze's crew aren't exactly the best of the best when it comes to exercises, but in practise, get by well enough because they work together.

I think now, the game plan is really to let more people check the movie out and see what they think. Even in this thread for the film, it's been a bit quiet.

[tsunade666]

bloody awesome movie. loved it! explosive and bombastic. loved the first part with the tournament where different school and teams was shown. loved also the later part when the whole team infiltrate the fortress. as always, mike' s plans are unexpected and reckless but thet worked. also liked it when China and mike knew and trust each other to work the plan.

I didn't like the middle part. the pirates are dumb as worms. it's not even funny when the blue mermaid and ship's sister infiltrated it. the initial rescue of the hostages are a bit okay but when the captain infiltrated? its over the top that it's not funny at all.

[Nachtwandler]

I really liked the movie. It had more soL and action balance than the first GuP movie but that is fine. Though, now I want more. Especially after they mentioned Mokas mother. I am intrigued now.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Nachtwandler

Especially after thay mentioned Mokas mother. I am intrigued now.

They should give Moka more focus if they ever do something else in this franchise. She's actually one of the most popular characters (more popular than Mashiro, for instance) yet gets very little screen time. They definitely should fix that if the franchises doesn't die here.

[Infinite Zenith]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

They should give Moka more focus if they ever do something else in this franchise. She's actually one of the most popular characters (more popular than Mashiro, for instance) yet gets very little screen time. They definitely should fix that if the franchises doesn't die here.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more Moeka, especially how her skill in the film was mostly word of mouth, and how her strategies, while impressive, pale compared to the feats Akeno and the Harekaze pull off. The movie, if anything, shows how much possibility there is in this universe. With the higher sea levels and increased empahsis on ocean travel, defense and the like, there's plenty to explore in the Hai-Furi universe. The world-building in the film seems like it's just scratching the surface, and we could get an entire series for any of the other ships' crews.

On an unrelated note, I may sound like a wet blanket for saying so, but in the absence of Myssa Rei, I'm rather glad discussions this time around are focused on appreciating what the movie does well, looking at what could be improved from a story perspective and not focusing excessively on things like whether the Harekaze fired a training torpedo or armed Type 93, or making false claims about the status of heavier-than-air flight as coming from a member of the staff when it was actually speculation from a completely unrelated Tweet. I certainly have no wish to argue endlessly on things like the viability of a 36-inch torpedo or boosting a depth charge using an AA gun; this film was a fun spectacle, and that's what counts.

[Nachtwandler]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

They should give Moka more focus if they ever do something else in this franchise. She's actually one of the most popular characters (more popular than Mashiro, for instance) yet gets very little screen time. They definitely should fix that if the franchises doesn't die here.

She had more focus in the movie at least. Yes, she was not the MC, but it was her plan they executed most of the time and, despite being under Mashimo, she was a de-facto commander. Though, I alo wnt more focus onother characters outside the "Harekaze" crew.